http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/the-miscast-spe.html
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/06/the-miscast-spe.html
DDI does not seem all that great to me (although the online dungeon and dragon offerings have been tasty so far) but the author of that piece seems kind of uninformed. Guess that's why they call it a blog.
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Seems to me that the author missed the point. While the pricing is an issue, I don't think it's the real failure of DDI thusfar. The real failure is that it didn't launch with the books (as per all the promotional materials) and WotC has fessed up that it could be months and months before any apps make it public. Not to mention the fact that WotC didn't make much of an effort to get the word out about the delay. They seemed pretty content to let everyone think DDI was launching June 7th.
So if DDI was a selling point for you, you've been left out in the cold.
-Skeld
I honestly don't see myself using DDI, and I'm a huge supporter of 4e. If WOTC offers just Dungeon and Dragon magazine alone for much much less then I'd be more than willing to do that.
The fact the DDI hasn't launched is a huge bummer for me. I planned to use the Character Creator app and the Character Visualizer app to enhance my 4E campaign and website.
I definitely want a character sheet I can print and place on my website (without having to scan it). Anyone convert one to Word yet?
The fact the DDI hasn't launched is a huge bummer for me. I planned to use the Character Creator app and the Character Visualizer app to enhance my 4E campaign and website.
And, I've actually been using a format similar to the pregen characters. I made a two-column Word document and I just copy and paste or fill in what I need to.
One thing I disagree with is the alleged "high cost" of D&Di. To me, $10 a month (as I had planned on subscribing) is a very fair value for access to two high quality magazines, several character building tools and databases, and an online dungeon tool (which I won't use for my regular games, but might be fun to use to hop in to a spur of the moment game happening across the world...)
But, with that said, this whole "delay" that's happened has supremely pissed me off. I wouldn't have been pissed off if they had come outright in the Ampersand column a while ago and told us straight up what the timeline was they were expecting, but myself, like many others, was totally expecting A LOT more, hell - ANYTHING, on June 6th or 7th...
And that may seriously make them lose my subscription. I don't NEED the content or the tools. I have been doing fine without them up until now (I never used Dungeon or Dragon material in my games, mostly just for toilet reading).
Aye it is a shame. I'll probably end up subscribing just for Dragon and Dungeon, but I was looking forward to a character generator as well. If you've ever used Heroforge, it looks like someone is trying to get a 4E version going here. I've played with it a bit and it seems on the up and up.
Cheers! :)
And, I've actually been using a format similar to the pregen characters. I made a two-column Word document and I just copy and paste or fill in what I need to.
One thing I disagree with is the alleged "high cost" of D&Di. To me, $10 a month (as I had planned on subscribing) is a very fair value for access to two high quality magazines, several character building tools and databases, and an online dungeon tool (which I won't use for my regular games, but might be fun to use to hop in to a spur of the moment game happening across the world...)
I agree that if you want all those things in the DDI then it isn't that high of a cost. However if most of the goodies are useless to you (the generator, the visualizer, and the online table) then the cost seems overly high. Prior to the cancellation I was a longtime Dragon subscriber whos only bought a handful of Dungeon mags. I used a lot of the material from Dragon in my games. There's no way I'm going to pay more for a digital version of Dragon... even if it comes with a bunch of stuff I don't want. Hopefully they will have subscription options where you can pick and choose which components you want or have a lite version that doesn't include the tools and is cheaper. They haven't made any indication that they're headed in that direction, but I think if they did they'd get more subscriptions... well, one more at least :)
I agree that if you want all those things in the DDI then it isn't that high of a cost. However if most of the goodies are useless to you (the generator, the visualizer, and the online table) then the cost seems overly high. Prior to the cancellation I was a longtime Dragon subscriber whos only bought a handful of Dungeon mags. I used a lot of the material from Dragon in my games. There's no way I'm going to pay more for a digital version of Dragon... even if it comes with a bunch of stuff I don't want. Hopefully they will have subscription options where you can pick and choose which components you want or have a lite version that doesn't include the tools and is cheaper. They haven't made any indication that they're headed in that direction, but I think if they did they'd get more subscriptions... well, one more at least :)
Actually, I saw a post from the Rouse saying that they were going to allow you to get just Dragon and Dungeon (the fact that no DDI is available currently may have pushed them in this direction ...) although he didn't throw out any numbers.
As always, my biggest gripe is how much in the air the whole thing STILL is. By the time the tools come out, inflation will have pushed the price tag to $20! (just joshing, not true, don't spread this as fact)
I think the Rouse went on to state they also were planning on letting you just pick up individual issues if you were interested in a non-sub format.
The more you know! (Go Joe!) ;)
I can't see myself subscribing to just the online magazines. I don't see myself nostalgically heading off to the bathroom 40 years from now (assuming I'm still going to the bathroom by myself then) cradling a beloved PDF or digital file, but I'll certainly scan through the yellowed crackling pages of a real magazine and sigh. (and it won't even be porn, unless the scantily clad babes on some of the covers of the real magazines could be classified as such ;)
I can't see myself subscribing to just the online magazines. I don't see myself nostalgically heading off to the bathroom 40 years from now (assuming I'm still going to the bathroom by myself then) cradling a beloved PDF or digital file, but I'll certainly scan through the yellowed crackling pages of a real magazine and sigh.
Don't worry. 40 years from now we'll just transtelepathically inscribe them onto your frontal cortex as you spatially adjust yourself to your waste receptacle area. Of course you'll still have to deal with the space badgers (space badgers are always troublesome!)
As always, my biggest gripe is how much in the air the whole thing STILL is. By the time the tools come out, inflation will have pushed the price tag to $20! (just joshing, not true, don't spread this as fact)Honestly, we really have no indication of when all of the DDI tools will be available. It could be late into Spring 2009 before the entire suite of tools is open to the public for all we know.
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I am seriously concerned, given WotC's track record, that the DDI will NEVER actually materialize, at least not in any useful form. I predicted that there would be delays in the launch of the DDI as soon as they announced, just as I predicted that the online content of the Mags would not live up to WotC's promises when they canceled the mags. And I know that I was not the only one who made these predictions. They have consistently failed to provide electronic content that was worthwhile.
It's really too bad, because I like 4E. I want to be wrong. I'm just not getting my hopes up. Please WotC, prove me wrong!
When WotC realized that they weren't going to have everything ready for launch, they should have dropped everything except the character generator (which I guess would require the Compendium) and got that much ready. Then maybe they could have had something to show us, and the rest could be added as it was ready. It would still be not great, but this is terrible.
And from what I've read, the first component we are likely to get is the 'visualizer,' which is basically useless without the rest of the suite. By the time the official character generator is available (my personal prediction is just before Christmas) there will be dozens of unofficial/bootleg generators out there, and most people who want one will have already chosen the one that they like.
My fear is that when that happens, subscriptions and customer satisfaction will be so low that they will just cancel the whole project.
[Actually, I saw a post from the Rouse saying that they were going to allow you to get just Dragon and Dungeon (the fact that no DDI is available currently may have pushed them in this direction ...) although he didn't throw out any numbers.
As always, my biggest gripe is how much in the air the whole thing STILL is. By the time the tools come out, inflation will have pushed the price tag to $20! (just joshing, not true, don't spread this as fact)
I think the Rouse went on to state they also were planning on letting you just pick up individual issues if you were interested in a non-sub format.
The more you know! (Go Joe!) ;)
Excellent to hear, thanks. It is surprising that this isn't all worked out already. I guess in the meantime I'll enjoy Dragon for free.
I am seriously concerned, given WotC's track record, that the DDI will NEVER actually materialize, at least not in any useful form. I predicted that there would be delays in the launch of the DDI as soon as they announced, just as I predicted that the online content of the Mags would not live up to WotC's promises when they canceled the mags. And I know that I was not the only one who made these predictions. They have consistently failed to provide electronic content that was worthwhile.
It's really too bad, because I like 4E. I want to be wrong. I'm just not getting my hopes up. Please WotC, prove me wrong!
When WotC realized that they weren't going to have everything ready for launch, they should have dropped everything except the character generator (which I guess would require the Compendium) and got that much ready. Then maybe they could have had something to show us, and the rest could be added as it was ready. It would still be not great, but this is terrible.
And from what I've read, the first component we are likely to get is the 'visualizer,' which is basically useless without the rest of the suite. By the time the official character generator is available (my personal prediction is just before Christmas) there will be dozens of unofficial/bootleg generators out there, and most people who want one will have already chosen the one that they like.
My fear is that when that happens, subscriptions and customer satisfaction will be so low that they will just cancel the whole project.
I agree with most of what you've said. At this point I think the Compendium is likely their best hope, but honestly I'm not sure how much I'd pay for what amounts to an SRD (although admittedly, an SRD that will contain all of the books, not just a small handful ...)
That said, the one point I do disagree with you on is the two magazines. Sure they've been crappy while 4E was still in dev, but so far I've been impressed with their post-4E offering. The Warforged and Ashen Covenant articles, frex, were really well done IMO. I'd always planned on picking up a sub just for the magazines, and hopefully with the DDI missing, I can now do so at a reduced cost ...
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That said, the one point I do disagree with you on is the two magazines. Sure they've been crappy while 4E was still in dev, but so far I've been impressed with their post-4E offering. The Warforged and Ashen Covenant articles, frex, were really well done IMO.
Actually, I agree with this, and I even liked most of the adventures for 3.5 that got produced up until 4E. My main point was just that they haven't produced as much content as the mags did, and a lot of what they called magazine content was just the same stuff they had always had on their website anyways. The jury is still out on the value/quantity of content they will produce now, but quality-wise, their first articles have been great.
Sorry for being unclear!
That said, the one point I do disagree with you on is the two magazines. Sure they've been crappy while 4E was still in dev, but so far I've been impressed with their post-4E offering. The Warforged and Ashen Covenant articles, frex, were really well done IMO.Actually, I agree with this, and I even liked most of the adventures for 3.5 that got produced up until 4E. My main point was just that they haven't produced as much content as the mags did, and a lot of what they called magazine content was just the same stuff they had always had on their website anyways. The jury is still out on the value/quantity of content they will produce now, but quality-wise, their first articles have been great.
Sorry for being unclear!
I agree with you Scribe. Much of the content on the website now would have been free if the magazines hadn't been canceled.
Also, I agree that they should have had SOMETHING ready for the launch of 4th Edition. A character creator being the likely choice. If they are going to release things one at a time, let's focus all of our development tools TO THAT PRODUCT. Let's get SOMETHING out the gate.
Sigh...
Anyways, I am pretty sore about the lack of content as well as the misinformation (or lack of info) by WotC.
I'm pretty sure you will be able to find the Dragon and Dungeon online PDF docs for free on the web, even after they begin charging for DDI.
Its just the nature of the internet after all.
I don't mind shelling out a few bucks for one or two 4E books, but I have next to no interest in the DDI software or online tools and thus will not be paying for those.
So their lack of online content really didn't bother me too much. That's why I come to Paizo's site anyways :P
One thing I disagree with is the alleged "high cost" of D&Di. To me, $10 a month (as I had planned on subscribing) is a very fair value for access to two high quality magazines, several character building tools and databases, and an online dungeon tool...
There's no indication any of that will come out, save the word of WotC. Their game design team is excellent -- at best, their DDI team (or more likely management's decisions regarding DDI) has been incompetent.
Anyways, I am pretty sore about the lack of content as well as the misinformation (or lack of info) by WotC.
It does little to instill trust or confidence :/
I am seriously concerned, given WotC's track record, that the DDI will NEVER actually materialize, at least not in any useful form...
That would shock me.
IMO one of 3e's main benefits for Hasbro was maintaining interest in minis -- for which the profit margin is very high. I think DDI is a high-ROI (return on investment) gimmick around which the company is building its strategic goals for D&D.
Which doesn't really mean it'll happen. They need developers (which I think they finally hired -- recently) and competent project management. Does anyone think there have been management changes?